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98. The Man Who Watched Trains Go By, the 1952 adaptation of the crime thriller by Georges Simenon, follows the plot faithfully but doesn’t have the novel’s queasy atmosphere. Claude Rains, whom we regard as a model of urbanity (He is our favorite character in Casablanca. “I’m shocked, shocked that there’s gambling on the premises.” “Your winnings, Sir.” “Oh yes, thank you.”), stars as Kees Popinga, a model citizen who suddenly snaps and goes on a crime spree. Everyone is so polite, especially Marius Goring from The Red Shoes as the detective in pursuit, so we don’t believe anything bad really happened.

99. The Physician (2013). Based on Noah Gordon’s historical novel about an English orphan in the 11th century who travels to Persia to learn medicine. At the time, Europe was in the Dark Ages and the sick were tended to by traveling barbers. The real physicians were Jews trained in Persia. So the English boy pretends to be Jewish (He circumcises himself, that’s how serious he was about becoming a doctor) and travels to Isfahan to train with the great Ibn Sina (Avicenna). There he helps battle an outbreak of the plague, which is not as lethal as religious fundamentalism. Stars Tom Payne and Emma Rigby are the cutest couple we’ve seen in movies this year.

100. The Double. Richard Ayoade’s adaptation of Dostoevsky’s short novel is a very black comedy reminiscent of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. Starring Jesse Eisenberg as both the nebbish and the popular new guy whom no one notices looks exactly like him.

101. The Two Faces of January. Based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, whose better-known books have been adapted for film by Wim Wenders, Liliana Cavani, Rene Clement, Anthony Minghella, Alfred Hitchcock. In an interview Viggo Mortensen disparaged the source novel, and we thought, “Ang taray naman ni Viggo”, but he’s right. How dare we doubt Viggo. (No, there is no scene in a Turkish bath, or battles with orcs.) The material’s quite thin, but it’s elevated by the acting and director Hossein Amini doesn’t stint on the nastiness. Why are the characters in movies based on Highsmith novels so well-dressed?

For years there have been rumors that the Swedish retailing giant H&M would open in Manila. Many months ago, construction began on its first store at Megasmall. Signs around the site said it would open “in the fall”. As far as we know, there are only three seasons in the Philippines, and fall isn’t one of them. Yes, you read it right, three seasons. Hot and sunny, hot and raining, or hot, sunny AND raining, like today, when traffic went straight to hell again.

Back in August, our friend the publicist of H&M got fed up with our frequent queries (Is it opening yet? Is it opening yet? Is it opening yet?) and invited us to the showroom of H&M in Makati.

The showroom contains the store’s current collections, but they’re not for sale. It was set up so fashion editors and stylists could borrow outfits for photo shoots. This beats having to go to a branch and signing out for the clothes.

In case you’ve ever wondered what happens to the clothes that get loaned out for fashion shoots and celebrities’ public appearances, they are returned to the racks and sold to the public. Unless they’re dirty, in which case they’re cleaned first. According to the H&M showroom manager, the clothes they lend out are not sold afterwards.

According to the billboard on the highway, H&M finally opens on Friday, 17 October.

We’re curious to know how the entry of Uniqlo, H&M and other foreign brands with competitive prices has affected the sales of local retail brands.

We’re hosting the Q&A with Amy Tan on Friday, 24 October, 1.30 to 3pm at Ballroom 2 of the Raffles Hotel. Her book-signing will be held the following day at 2pm.

See the full schedule at philippineliteraryfestival.com.

Admission is free. Registration starts at 8am daily. Only books purchased at the venue will be signed by the guest authors.

Available at National Bookstores.

Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham, Php845. In HBO’s Girls, written and directed by Lena Dunham, Lena Dunham plays a character who is writing a book of personal essays. Here is the actual Lena Dunham’s book of personal essays (the names have been changed). If the characters are half as funny, aggressively imperfect, maddening and surprising as those in Girls, this should be fun.

The Melancholy of Resistance by Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Php899. Translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes. According to the blurb, a surreal novel about a circus arriving in a small town with the stuffed corpse of the largest whale in the world. It sounds like the plot of a Bela Tarr movie we’d seen at a film festival—turns out it is the source. One of Tarr’s most famous movies, Satantango, is also adapted from a Krasznahorkai novel. And we have a strange fascination with authors whose names are hard to spell (Hungarians and Russians win).

The Garden of Departed Cats by Bilge Karasu, Php895. Translated from the Turkish by Aron Aji. Twelve strange fables. They had us at the title.

Taken 17 September 2013. She appeared to be in perfect health.

23 September 2013. She hadn’t been eating and drinking. She went inside a pet carrier, signifying that she wanted to go to the vet.

It’s exactly a year ago tomorrow that our cat Koosi died. She was buried by the guardhouse, under the sturdy Talisay tree. According to the building staff, a couple of dogs had been been buried there the previous year. Later renovations were done and a some steps were built on the spot. So Koosi has her pyramid, with slaves to accompany her, Ancient Egyptian-style.

Koosi, 1999-2013

As we reported last week, Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan has been named the official entry of the Philippines to the Academy Awards. Thanks to everyone who saw the movie, who told their friends about it, who spread the word about a 4-hour, 10-minute indie arthouse movie that, on paper, didn’t stand a chance against the heavily-advertised, big budget mainstream productions.

Next, we try to get into the shortlist of five nominees for Best Foreign Language Film.

IndieWire says Norte has a chance. We expect favorable notice from awards prediction sites in the coming weeks. But every country has an entry, and many of them are worthy contenders, too.

Lav Diaz is too cool to campaign for a nomination, but (speaking for ourself) we’re not. We want that nomination. What we need is to be adopted by a major Hollywood player who will throw their weight behind Norte, The End of History and get Academy members to consider supporting it for the Oscars. Maybe throw us a party. And this is the first name that popped into our massive head: Robert Downey, Jr. He’s as major a Hollywood player as it gets, we have a feeling he’ll like Norte, and we do love him.

Robert Downey, Jr., adopt us.

(Does anyone know anyone who knows RDJ? In real life, not in your fan fiction.)

Update: Moira Lang, mother of Norte, spoke to Norte’s US distributor Cinema Guild. They explained how a film gets into the shortlist. Basically, it’s a crapshoot. A small committee chooses the entries out of all the submissions. Often, the film agency of the country which submitted the film hires a PR agency to boost the film’s chances of becoming one of the five nominees.

Once a movie gets into the shortlist, its chances become one in five, so that’s when the producers throw everything they have at selling Norte to Academy voters.

Next week we’ll know if the Philippine government through the Film Development Council will support Norte’s Oscar campaign. It’s in everyone’s best interest.